Pit

n. [A-S. pytt or pitt, a pit, hole, D. put, a well, Icel. pittr, pyttr, Ir. & Gael. pit, a hollow, pit, Lat. puteus, a well, pit, W. pyll, a well or spring. See PEAT.]

1. A large, deep hole in the ground; a well; a cavity in the earth, natural or artificial.
2. Hence, an abyss; especially, the bottomless pit; hell.

Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained. Milton. 3. The grave. He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. Job xxiii. 18. Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. Ps. xxx. 3.

4. A snare for wild beasts, made by concealing a hole in the ground, into which they may fall.
5. Hence, whatever insnares or entraps.
6. An indenture in the flesh; as, (a.) The hollow place under the arm. (b.) The hollow of the stomach. (c.) The indentation or mark left on the flesh by a pustule of the small-pox.
7. The lowest place in a theater where spectators assemble; parquet.
8. An area into which cocks or dogs are brought to fight.
9. The hard kernel of fruit; the stone of a cherry or plum. [U. S.]
10. (Mach.) A crank-pit.

To have the power of pit and gallows, to have power of imprisonment and death.

[imp. & p. p. PITTED; p. pr. & vb. n. PITTING.]

1. To indent; to press into hollows.
2. To mark with little hollows, as by various pustules; as, the face pitted by the small-pox.
3. To introduce as an antagonist to; to provoke to combat, as cocks in a pit. Federalist.